North Carolina Tax Hike Website

We’re seeing more and more solid examples of independently planned and implemented citizen action efforts with each new day. The example I want to point at today is a new online effort to shed light on the outrageous tax increases being proposed in the state of North Carolina. The new site is called NC Tax Hikes.

The following is the content found on the homepage.
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About NC Tax Hike

The truth is that I don’t usually follow the North Carolina legislature very closely. I watch Washington, but somehow or another the state government doesn’t seem so important.

I had a rude awakening last week. Warning: Whether you follow them or not, you’re about to get socked with a HUGE tax increase.

Last week the NC House passed a budget proposal. The Senate has also passed a version, and the bill is in committee. This means that it’s just a heartbeat away from becoming law. They’re finalizing it now, working out the last kinks before it is sent to the governor for approval. Normally, conference committee can take a while but the start date of the law is July 1. So this will probably be an expedited process. We don’t have much time!

You can read the bill (and almost understand it) at http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2009/Bills/Senate/PDF/S202v6.pdf.

Here’s a summary of part of it in my words:

* Make 2 higher tax brackets for upper income people.
* Raise sales tax by 1/4 percentage point. They’ve raised it so many times I don’t even know what that will equal.
* Impose sales tax on service contracts, repair, maintenance and installation services. This means that if you buy a television from Best Buy, you’ll have to pay sales tax on the service contract. You’ll also pay sales tax when you get your car repaired – not just on the parts, but on the labor. And to get DirectTV installed next time you switch back from Dish Network. I’ve also heard that one interpretation of this is that you’ll have to pay sales tax on your lawn service. And so forth and so on. It’s everything.
* Impose sales tax on courier services. This is UPS, Fed Ex, your Christmas packages, and your LL Bean backpacks.
* Impose sales tax on digital products – music and movie downloads, ebooks, software, ringtones, etc.
* Impose sales tax on companies with affiliate marketers within NC. (That’s how I make my living.)
* Charge sales tax on movies, theme parks, races, sporting events, *gym memberships*, cover charges and so forth and so on.
* Increase liquor tax by 1 1/2 percentage points.
* ***Except as otherwise provided, this act becomes effective July 1, 2009.***

It also says more, but I can’t understand it. I called my Senator’s office asking for an explanation, but the receptionist said she couldn’t help me, but the State legislature library could. The library said that my Senator’s office would have to help me, so I called back the Senator’s office who assured me that the library would expalin it…you get the picture.

So – what can you do? Don’t take my word for it. Read the first two pages of the link I referenced above.

Contact Representative Paul Luebke (the Chair of the House Finance Committee) at Paul.Luebke@ncleg.net
and Senator David Hoyle* (the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee) at (919) 733-5734 or David.Hoyle@ncleg.net

Subscribe to this blog; I’ll be posting more information on who to contact.

NC residents: This information needs to be posted on every one of your Facebook pages. It needs to be forwarded to every email contact you have. Tweet it and photocopy it and stick it under the windshield wipers at the movie theatre and at the races. I want your gym owners and your garage managers to know about this. They don’t. You didn’t. I didn’t. This was slipped through and we weren’t paying attention. WE DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME.

And one thing – this isn’t time to be partisan. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican or a Libertarian doesn’t matter. These tax increases affect us all – and will drag us all further down.

Eleven percent unemployment, and they’re going to TAX us more?! I’m sick of this. Aren’t you?

Now, I’m not a politician. I’m probably slightly more politically aware than your average citizen, but not much. Our family is as patriotic as they come. We vote at every election, we have a son in the military, and we love the United States of America.

But we are fed up with being taxed out of our living. This blog is my statement to that effect.

Don’t expect perfection from this blog. Expect honesty and an attempt to share what I’m learning as I’m learning it.
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I don’t know about you, but reading that just made me a little red in the face. The audacity of government to move forward with large scale tax increases in this economy is beyond explanation. This is, without question, out of control insanity on all fronts.

Hats are off in the direction of NCTaxHike.com. Well done. Keep up the good fight.

-Eric Odom
TaxDayTeaParty.com & American Liberty Alliance